Tuesday, August 04, 2009

PA-Sen: Sestak Announces

I can't tell you how energized I am after seeing all of those people come together, veterans and teachers, laborers and doctors, students and seniors. They all made the early morning trip out to Folsom, and were joined by thousands watching live online, because they know that we must work together to restore the promise of the American Dream.

The American Dream is a great compact between generations - a promise that we will all pass down a better world than the one we inherited. Now, it has been lost for the first time in our history, because too many of those sent to Washington to represent you, the people, have instead acted on behalf of the powerful and well-connected.

This campaign is not about me. It's about all of us, and we are going to need your help to win. We have an opportunity -- if we act with resolve - to put college back in reach for our children, to demand transparency and accountability from our financial system, and provide quality and affordable health care to everyone. We can be a world leader again, working toward peace or putting American ingenuity on the front line against global climate change.

I have no illusions about Joe Sestak's record, though the fact that he's attempting to catch a wave of grassroots energy will hopefully make him a bit more responsible to those same grassroots. And the very fact of Sestak's candidacy is doing wonders for keeping Arlen Specter a Democratic partisan. Aside from my belief that primaries are pretty much the essence of democracy, offering voters a choice, giving Specter pressure from the Democratic mainstream is important, especially going into the next several months of tough Senate votes.